Senate Disapproves Of Electricity Tariff Increase
The Senate does not indend to approve recent pleas of the new investors in the power sector to increase electricity tariff. The Upper House would rather study the proposed increase to ensure that Nigerians are not overburdened with high tariff.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Philip Aduda addressed the press at the inauguration of the 33/33/11kV National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) injection sub-station project in Apo, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He said he was yet to receive the proposal to raise electricity tariff from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
"I have not seen it [the proposed tariff increase] yet, as they [the NERC] have not brought it to me. When I see it, of course, I will look at it. And then I will see, because we can't continue to overburden Nigerians with various tariffs."
Asked what the committee was doing about gas supply to the electricity generation companies, Aduda said the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) was addressing gas supply, assuring that the issue would be handled appropriately.
He said the committee has summoned the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo and the Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Don Priestman, to appear before it over the challenges of power transmission in the FCT.
The chairman explained that the megawatts of electricity being generated in the FCT remained stranded as it could not be wheeled to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).
He said: "I am aware that much power is given to the FCT, but unfortunately to evacuate it becomes a problem. With the commissioning of the various sub-stations, I am sure that the evacuation of power and ensuring that power is delivered will be a thing of the past.
"However, the minister, we must also get our transmission right. We must ensure that those we have saddled with the responsibility of managing our transmission get it right. And we have already invited the minister. We are inviting them to the committee tomorrow [today] because this is our commonwealth and if we give people our commonwealth to manage, we must see to it that it is managed properly. We must look at the protocol between market operators, systems operators."
The management of the TCN has been contracted to a Canadian firm, Maintoba Hydro International (MHI).
The Managing Director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NPHC), Mr. James Olotu, said the power station has the state-of-the-art equipment.
He said the station has a switch gear, facilities for two incoming 33KV power line and six outgoing feeders to enable the new owners of AEDC receive reliable and dependable power supply.
Olotu said the station would increase Abuja Disco service potential to the customers and earn it more revenue for re-investment.
He said: "Contractually, this project has 12 feeders out of the six. It is therefore the responsibility of the AEDC to increase and connect the remaining four to the network in order to recapture more customers."
Source: Legit.ng
